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As a longtime reader of DC, about 32 years, this is rather upsetting. I don't really see a reboot is needed. Is the DCU in bad shape? Well yeah, but that's DC fault. All of these crossover events IMO end up making the universe even more screwed up than it was before. Do we really need a crossover every year?

I just think DC needs to start putting out better books. I remember a time when creators stuck with books for years. Nowadays, you have a new writer and artist every 10 issues. How do you expect to get a decent book with these standards?

I love Johns and have been a fan of his since his JSA years but this may be even too much for him.

Jim Lee's designs are so out dated. I wasn't happy with Diana's new outfit, too 90's, and now he redesigning 50 characters. Oh my lord.

Does anybody really think Lee can do a monthly book on time??? His splash pages and art are beautiful, but his regular page work is dull and boring. I say he's off the book within 10 issues.

Don't even get me started on Morrison. He's even more over rated than Bendis but that's a whole other discussion.

I rarely buy DC nowadays but this might finally push me over the limit. Morrison's writing made me drop Detective and Batman after an almost 27 year stint. Superman has been subpar in the last few years to say the least.

This going to be DC version of Heroes Reborn.
Remember how well that went?

I just rolled my eyes when I read this, I only buy one comic per month now from DC (Batman Beyond) and after being let down by both Blackest Night and Brightest Day I am giving Flashpoint a go digitally. If it works for them thats great but these things are a reason why I practically gave up on Marvel and DC and went indie 2 1//2 years ago.

I also thought it was hilarious that they gave Wonder Woman a collar without an outfit that had one

I love Jim Lee but that image just made me think it was a really bad retro 90's homage

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Meh, whatever. They do this all of the time, so I do not see what the big deal is. I guess the only difference this time is that we have the internet to whine about it. So what? If anything, they can easily just move this stuff to a different Earth sicne they have like 33 more unused ones. Give a rest and let's see what they can do here.

Can someone PM me the US number for Matty? I want to talk to someone who might has a clue of what is going on.

Further, I have to think this has the potential to be a creative disaster. DC has soft re-launched their titles a few times now in a way that has never worked because the titles they put out there didn't engage with people. That was a much smaller group of titles, which makes me doubt that a larger group is going to get over any more effectively. Plus restarting everything again diminishes the creative juice that should come with such a drastic move. I'm also not sure they have the horses. DC's talent development in general gets sh#t on in nearly every single discussion I have in convention bars or on-line with people who play close attention to this kind of stuff, including creators that work at that company and others like it. It seems like DC has enough creators to barely handle the books they're doing; there's no surplus from the creative side that feels like it's demanding a bigger stage.

DC are doing a modernizing of their properties. They are removing aspects that their creative teams (mostly Geoff Johns) consider to be outdated and dragging the comics down. This means confusing and disliked storylines of the past will be gone, and characters will have slicker, more streamlined histories.

They are NOT rebooting all their properties, nor are the ones that ARE getting a reboot starting from "scratch". For example, the Justice League will still have existed for years post-Flashpoint. The JLI still existed.

The reboot is primarily intended to make unpopular franchises "hot" again, the same way Johns reignited the Green Lantern franchise. Already critically-acclaimed titles and runs (like Batman or Green Lantern) are not affected.

The properties rumored to receive the most rebooting are:

*Superman
*Wonder Woman
*Aquaman
*Justice League
*Teen Titans

It appears several of the elements of the Flashpoint timeline will be canonized for these characters.

So, once again, they're NOT starting over from scratch, just ditching a bunch of baggage (hopefully stuff like Heineberg's Wonder Woman ideas )

In an even more important move in the competitive comics industry, DC is making issues of all the renumbered titles available digitally via apps and a DC website the same day they arrive in comic shops. It marks the first time a major comics publisher has done so with its popular superhero titles.

I'm excited about this. I've bought more comics in the past four months or so than I have since MOTU was being published. The comic shops are few and far in between, out of my, and I don't have time to make a weekly trip to one. Since my girlfriend got an iPad I've downloaded comics like crazy. At first I thought it was just of the iPad, but last week I realized I can pull the books up on my Android or computer from Comixology.

I've been so far out of the loop I've just been going for limited series. I remember when I was a kid and was big into Superman books each week the story continued in a different book Action Comics #451 then to Adventures of Superman #895 then to Superman Man of Steel # 584 etc. and it was always very confusing.

Needless to say I haven't jumped back into it because who knows where the story started. I think it is a smart move by DC. I'll be more apt to start picking them up.

Originally Posted by King Kahn

What they NEED to do is start doing graphic novels and get away from the monthly rags.

I am a fan of this idea. Since I quit getting weekly books, I'll usually wait for a good series to come out and pick it up after it is over.

Giving away three free months of World of Warcraft + copy of game. PM me for details.

So basically we are getting a crisis event to wipe out things and another attempt to stream line things. Which has worked how well in the past? It sounds like they are trying not to upset old fanboys too much while trying to bring in new readers... again.

There thinking is most likely newer readers will hear all the things they want to hear, the problem is telling these readers they are streamlining by getting rid of some of the older stories isn't really telling them anything. Even if they specifically upfront told all things that were and were not going to be in, it isn't going to make new readers go awesome now I can start reading. Yes, they do say they don't jump in because of confusing back history, but let me translate that: confusing back history is anything that happened more than two years ago.

It isn't a matter of conflicting story lines, it's a matter of laziness on the readers parts. And they get confused when some character is introduced from the past without completely being told everything. What happens is old character is reintroduced, it's someone stated to be written in the past and they get hung up on this and throw their hands up, and yell it's too confusing. These readers don't know things like Hawkman's actual confusing and rebooted and retooled and unbooted and then somethinged story.

Also I think it's a problem that not just readers have but the writers have. They want to keep the history they like, not like those stores all of the sudden physically become unwritten. I look at it like many music artists, over the years many of them grow and move on from their early work and say that is who we were at the time. And not all get snippy about people needing to move on.

But it does seem to some extent another gag to get people to read. DC and marvel first off need to do more than stream line their history, they need to stream line the titles. If I read all this right they are going to have 52 series, (why is DC so enamored by this number) why not drop it down to half that and focus creative juices are fewer things. I am curious back in the golden age how many titles each publisher was putting out in a single month.

Digital format is going to need to be affordable also, I am hearing more and more people say the prices of even DC are just too much granted if they half their number of titles this might not be as big of a deal.

One Gum Drop to rule them all, One Gum Drop to find them,
One Gum Drop to bring them all and in the sweetness bind them
In the Land of Candy where the Gingerbreads lie.
-Tag line for the Candy Land Movie Adaptation

But it does seem to some extent another gag to get people to read. DC and marvel first off need to do more than stream line their history, they need to stream line the titles. If I read all this right they are going to have 52 series, (why is DC so enamored by this number) why not drop it down to half that and focus creative juices are fewer things. I am curious back in the golden age how many titles each publisher was putting out in a single month.

BINGO!! This, this, this!!

Even my biggest hurdle (and I have been into comics since 1983) is the fact that at times you need 10-15 titles just to comprehend the story. I used to be ok when it was 2 or 3 that gave side stories and insight to an overall arc. But over the past few years it seems these arcs they do are solely designed to move a ton of titles.

Then when the arc dies you have all these titles that serve no real purpose because the characters they only made intriguing for the run of the event. That is just one of the side effects of a base of titles that large.

I think if they want to reboot that is fine, but I really do think they should have started off with maybe 10 or 15, then spin off after a year or two from that. Dedicate the talent they do have into these books

Quality over Quantity

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I think if they want to reboot that is fine, but I really do think they should have started off with maybe 10 or 15, then spin off after a year or two from that. Dedicate the talent they do have into these books

Quality over Quantity

Its extraordinarily stupid to relaunch 50+ books in 1 month.

Not only do they not have the writers and artists to handle that many books, but if they are trying to bring in new readers, that many books could easily scare a lot of people off.

In some ways I think that this is a good and bad idea. One thing they need to do is to keep exact dates and real historical figures out of it. I was just reading the New Teen Titans where Terra betrays the team. When she dies her tombstone reads 1968-1984. So in the last decade when Cyborg and others appeared in newer Titans titles does that mean he was in his 50's? The same book was also talking about Michael Jackson, because he was huge at the time. Singers and actors are fine to mention but don't actually show them. It dates the material.

Marvel is a universe that could use some of this too. Nick Fury and Cap are both from World War II. How much longer can they go with that? The Punisher is a Vietnam Vet, so was my dad at the tail end of the war and he just turned 60. In 15 years is Frank Castle going to kill mobsters on his Rascal Scooter?

In my opinion just reboot Universe with all the characters established with their most well know origin at about year two or three into the Superhero boom. We don't need to start with the first time Batman puts on the cape and cowl. They can do an origin flashback in issue 7. Don't change the costumes to much. You will destroy the icons that made the company.

This should also be done on a smaller scale. They only need one comic per character and just one JLA and JSA. No Justice League Miami or other spin-offs. And don't do titles like Atom, Blue Beetle or Booster Gold. They are great characters but don't need their own titles to start with. Especially don't do things like Animal Man or Adam Strange titles. Leave D-List characters as guest stars.

I really do think they need to scale back the number of titles (marvel also).

I would go with

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern
Flash
Aquaman

Justice League
Justice Society
Teen Titans

Action Comics
Detective Comics

+2-4 limited series

With Justice League and Society, I would more less leave Society has it is now a partially older team training some younger characters. With Justice League have characters with solo titles (specifically those mentioned) be considered founding or inactive members and they make special guest appearances.

Action and Detective comics would both be like they are now anthology type series.

The limited series would be a currently popular character or team and would last for up to a year.

So total 13-15 titles, and yes there are characters and teams I would love to have put up in that list.

One Gum Drop to rule them all, One Gum Drop to find them,
One Gum Drop to bring them all and in the sweetness bind them
In the Land of Candy where the Gingerbreads lie.
-Tag line for the Candy Land Movie Adaptation

New information: Female DC characters will be redesigned to be more modest and less fanservice-y. Pants for everyone, apparently. No more Supergirl skirts.

Thoughts?

So...no more stripperific Star Sapphire, Starfire or Arisa? Soranik Natu and Catwoman are gonna zip up their ample cleavages? Black Canary and Zatanna are gonna lose their fishnets? Will Power Girl still have her boob window? Poison Ivy is going to cover up now?

(How do you make Starfire non-stripperific?)

This ain't gonna last. I give it a year at the most before the first character returns to his or her iconic look.

New information: Female DC characters will be redesigned to be more modest and less fanservice-y. Pants for everyone, apparently. No more Supergirl skirts.

Thoughts?

Supergirl as drawn by Jamal Ingle has been fairly modest. Her skirt is nearly knee length and she wears "biker shorts" underneath. He was stuck with that dippy belly tee that Michael Turner designed, unfortunately. That would have been the only big change I'd have made. Well, and maybe made her skirt red as it has more classically been depicted.

So...no more stripperific Star Sapphire, Starfire or Arisa? Soranik Natu and Catwoman are gonna zip up their ample cleavages? Black Canary and Zatanna are gonna lose their fishnets? Will Power Girl still have her boob window? Poison Ivy is going to cover up now?

(How do you make Starfire non-stripperific?)

This ain't gonna last. I give it a year at the most before the first character returns to his or her iconic look.

Even the Titans cartoon was only vaguely more modest.

One Gum Drop to rule them all, One Gum Drop to find them,
One Gum Drop to bring them all and in the sweetness bind them
In the Land of Candy where the Gingerbreads lie.
-Tag line for the Candy Land Movie Adaptation

First off,I love this. I haven't read a comic in years because there are so many crossovers and storylines going on I don't know where to start,I just end up reading Wikipedia.

Second,I wish they would stop doing monthly releases and release graphic novels every 3 months or something. Comics are way to short a read to have to wait a month in between them.

You should read a bit more for clarification what is going on. They are starting all issues off at 1, and just retooling history. They will still have too many titles out at one time, will most likely still shift creative teams around on titles every 12 months. For the next three months they will do a bunch of stuff then when the 'reboot' will say it was just a dream. Dan Didio and others need to stop watching Dallas.

Last edited by wyldman11; June 1, 2011 at 04:35pm.

One Gum Drop to rule them all, One Gum Drop to find them,
One Gum Drop to bring them all and in the sweetness bind them
In the Land of Candy where the Gingerbreads lie.
-Tag line for the Candy Land Movie Adaptation